Billy Harris setting his sights on Nottingham success

Billy Harris will look to make it back-to-back semi-finals on grass after a battling three-set win over rising star Joao Fonseca at the LTA’s Rothesay Open in Nottingham.

The 29-year-old, who was born in Nottingham, beat Brazilian 17-year-old Fonseca, last year's junior US Open champion, 7-6 (5) 3-6 6-4 to move into the last eight.

And for the second week running, it will be experienced Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin who stands in his way of a place in the semi-finals.

Last week in Surbiton, Harris got the better of the former world No.39 in a third set tie-break, and he had to show similar resilience to set up another meeting with Kukushkin.

Having taken the first set on a tie-break, Harris had to complete the match indoors as rain interrupted play in Nottingham.

He said: “It was definitely a difficult match, a lot of stop-start, switching from grass to hard was not an easy transition. But after I lost the second set indoors, I finally found my game again and managed to change the momentum with a break of serve early in the third set. I felt good from then on, I started serving a bit better and played well to close out the match.

“I felt like (Fonseca) was very consistent with his serving throughout the match, so even when we went indoors, he found his feet very quickly. He timed the ball very well so he caught me off guard. I was just lucky enough to get a good start in the third set. That was definitely the turning point in the match, when I broke his serve in the third set.”

Now, Harris will hope to imitate his performance in Surbiton a week ago as he tries to build on a good start to the grass-court season.

And with his two previous meetings with Kukushkin having gone the distance, each man winning one match, the only certainty is that Harris will need to be at his best to come out on top.

He added: “I’ve played Kukushkin twice now, and both times it has been very tough three-set matches. Last week I got the better of him but I’m definitely expecting another tough match. He’s always very calm on court and fights until the end so I’m expecting a battle.”

For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website